General Hockey Talk - Injuries, signings, factoids + other news from around the league

tim1_2 wrote:

SpezDispensed wrote:

tim1_2 wrote:I would trade Cowen for Bickell.

Chicago would have to retain IMO.

They would never do that, considering Cowens salary is slightly higher. If anything, when we deal him, we should retain salary to sweeten the pot. One of our "assets" is our cap space. But that's only an asset if we use it.

Cowen is apparently a cheap buyout so under the right circumstances a team could "try before they buy" and send us a useful player they might want to dump for cap reasons. We'll see but all hope is not lost with respect to trading "Cows" Cowen.

I was about to say that -- the BlackHawks could buy him out for less than it would take to buy out Bickell. I just don't see where we could use Bickell. He's not -- I repeat, NOT -- a top-six player, regardless of whether he used to be one in the past or not.

Speaking of the Blackhawks, they did us a solid by beating Montreal in regulation.

4-15-1 in their last 20 games.

#norispek

Flo The Action wrote:Speaking of the Blackhawks, they did us a solid by beating Montreal in regulation.

Second game in two nights for the Smurfs. It was not much of a solid.

wprager wrote:

Flo The Action wrote:Speaking of the Blackhawks, they did us a solid by beating Montreal in regulation.

Second game in two nights for the Smurfs.  It was not much of a solid.  

Stop making excuses for your beloved Habs.

SeawaySensFan wrote:

wprager wrote:

Flo The Action wrote:Speaking of the Blackhawks, they did us a solid by beating Montreal in regulation.

Second game in two nights for the Smurfs.  It was not much of a solid.  

Stop making excuses for your beloved Habs.

Just don't want to "owe" anything to the Hawks. Kane got to pad his lead with a couple easy goals.

We're two behind Montreal and three behind Boston for the wildcard spots.

I think Washington has already clinched a playoff spot for god's sake...They're 14 points ahead of anyone else in the East.

tim1_2 wrote:We're two behind Montreal and three behind Boston for the wildcard spots.  

I think Washington has already clinched a playoff spot for god's sake...They're 14 points ahead of anyone else in the East.

Everyone in Montreal thought they'd clinched a playoff spot on December 2. Since then the Habs have generated 9 points in the standings. The Sens have sucked as well and they have 19 points in the same time frame (as do a bunch of other bottom dwellers). It is really quite remarkable.

And now Holtby was pulled from a game suffering from dehydration. Who knows, maybe an injury is around the corner.

According to @BWildeCTV (16.5K followers -- ok, so he's no Bobby Mac) Montreal is apparently making a significant push to land Drouin. If that is true, that would be such a desperation move. Drouin is *not* going to help them score goals in the short-term, and that is their biggest issue right now (along with a lack of confidence).

wprager wrote:According to @BWildeCTV (16.5K followers -- ok, so he's no Bobby Mac) Montreal is apparently making a significant push to land Drouin.  If that is true, that would be such a desperation move.  Drouin is *not* going to help them score goals in the short-term, and that is their biggest issue right now (along with a lack of confidence).  

He might. He's a talented kid and a change of scenery has helped lots of people reach untapped potential, sometimes basically right away. Lecavalier was *not* going to help out in LA, except that he is.

Vinnie's been there 5 games. They were already on a roll when he got there.

wprager wrote:Vinnie's been there 5 games.  They were already on a roll when he got there.

The point is that most people didn't expect him to contribute with goals. He's scoring. You said Drouin wouldn't score. I'm hopeful you can pick up what I'm putting down here.

It's weird of Montreal because their area of weakness in the right wing not left. But who cares right? If they can sink even further. If anyone can ruin drouin it's therrien.

spader wrote:

wprager wrote:Vinnie's been there 5 games.  They were already on a roll when he got there.

The point is that most people didn't expect him to contribute with goals. He's scoring. You said Drouin wouldn't score. I'm hopeful you can pick up what I'm putting down here.

Not sure what you are talking about. He has 2 goals in 5 games. The one against the Sens was a gift. He's always been able to put the puck in the net if he had the chance, the problem is that he's not getting the chances he used to. If he continues to get 2 goals every 5 games then, yes, you can say "he's scoring". But you're not there yet.

Also, to get back to my point about Drouin. Here you have a team of players who have scored goals in the past and they are not scoring now. I don't think the solution is to bring in a youngster who has, so far, shown that he hasn't figured out the NHL game yet.

Unless they somehow think he can help their PP. That used to be their bread and butter, three or four years ago they scored 27% of their goals on the PP. Last year they were at 18% and this year a little better, around 21%. You still have PK/Markov on the blue line, and Patches, Gallagher, Plekanec up front. Not sure what has changed but this is where they need help. That, or get bigger up the middle, because they'll continue to struggle to score at even strength if they don't get bigger.

Florida has cooled off, hasn't it. Lost 3 in a row (officially 2, but the third was an OT loss to the Canucks) and down 2-0 in the first to the Oilers.

Edmonton wins the game 4-2 but loses RNH to a broken hand, blocking a shot. I believe they were already leading the NHL in man games lost to injury.

spader wrote:

wprager wrote:Vinnie's been there 5 games.  They were already on a roll when he got there.

The point is that most people didn't expect him to contribute with goals. He's scoring. You said Drouin wouldn't score. I'm hopeful you can pick up what I'm putting down here.

Right you are.